Read Online Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan - Free Book Online

coast,” I said slowly, “whatever its archaeological merits may have been, is part of the Northern Rim territories, and the Northern Rim has been designated by Carrera’s Wedge as one of nine primary objectives in winning the war. And judging from the amount of organic damage going on up there at the moment, the Kempists have come to the same conclusion.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo, mounting an archaeological expedition while Kemp and the Wedge are up there fighting for territorial dominance isn’t my idea of smart. We have to get the fighting diverted.”
    â€œDiverted?”
The disbelief in her voice was gratifying to hear. I played to it, shrugging again.
    â€œDiverted, or postponed. Whatever works. The point is, we need help. And the only place we’re going to get help of that order is from the corporates. We’re going to Landfall, and since I’m supposed to be on active service, Schneider’s a Kempist deserter, you’re a prisoner of war, and this is a stolen shuttle, we need to shed a little heat before we do that. Satellite coverage of our little run-in with the smart mines back there will read like they took us down. A search of the seabed will show up pieces of wreckage compatible with that. Allowing that no one looks at the evidence too closely, we’ll be filed as missing, presumed vaporized, which suits me fine.”
    â€œYou think they’ll let it go at that?”
    â€œWell, it’s a war. People getting killed shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.” I picked a stray length of wood out of the fire and started tracing a rough continental map in the sand. “Oh, they may wonder what I was doing down here when I’m supposed to be taking up a command on the Rim, but that’s the kind of detail that gets sifted in the aftermath of a conflict. Right now, Carrera’s Wedge are spread pretty thin in the north and Kemp’s forces are still pushing them toward the mountains. They’ve got the Presidential Guard coming in on this flank”—I prodded at the sand with my makeshift pointer—“and sea-launched air strikes from Kemp’s iceberg fleet over here. Carrera’s got a few more important things to worry about than the exact manner of my demise.”
    â€œAnd you really think the Cartel are going to put all that on hold just for you?” Tanya Wardani swung her burning gaze from my face to Schneider’s. “You didn’t really buy into this, did you, Jan?”
    Schneider made a small gesture with one hand. “Just listen to the man, Tanya. He’s jacked into the machine: He knows what he’s talking about.”
    â€œYeah,
right
.” The intense, hectic eyes snapped back to me. “Don’t think I’m not grateful to you for getting me out of the camp, because I am. I don’t think you can imagine quite how grateful I am. But now that I’m out, I’d quite like to live. This, this
plan
, is all bullshit. You’re just going to get us all killed, either in Landfall by corporate samurai or caught in the crossfire at Dangrek. They aren’t going to—”
    â€œYou’re right,” I said patiently, and she shut up, surprised. “To a point, you’re right. The major corporates, the ones in the Cartel, they wouldn’t give this scheme a second glance. They can murder us, stick you into virtual interrogation until you tell them what they want to know, and then just keep the whole thing under wraps until the war is over and they’ve won.”
    â€œIf they win.”
    â€œThey will,” I told her. “They always do, one way or the other. But we aren’t going to the majors. We’ve got to be smarter than that.”
    I paused and poked at the fire, waiting. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw how Schneider craned forward with tension. Without Tanya Wardani aboard, the whole thing was dead in the water and we all knew it.
    The sea